Ramblings about knitting, life, exploits, and other things.

November 29, 2006

On Secretly Hideous Thighs

I have believed for quite a while now that a good part of why I allowed myself to gain and keep those twenty pounds I've been lugging around for the past 10 years is that I have been living without a full length mirror, and therefore only actually SEE my body when I'm in the dressing room trying on clothes.

And since we all know that those mirrors are warped, and everyone looks fatter in them, what with the warping and the scary lighting and such.... I didn't believe those mirrors on the rare occasions I actually went in to try on clothes.

This means that when I decided to lose weight I did so without the horror benefit of really knowing what I truly look like. After all, in my mind's eye, I still looked pretty darn good. And the charming gentlemen I know who tell me I look great -- are smart: never tell a woman she looks fat. It's much better to lie than to tell a woman she looks fat. So they've been lying, and I've been believing. I'm such a sucker.So anyway, what with barely looking at the dressing room mirrors, and they lying friends, and all, I still had no idea what I look like in anything less than slacks.

Til today.

I was working out at the club I had finished my 20 minute forward hill climbing sequence on the treadmill and decided to add 10 minutes of backwards walking to the drill. I like to throw backwards stuff in to change up the way I use the muscles (good for toning the bum that one). On the elliptical, you can go backwards without turning around, so I'd been doing my backwards stuff there... but today, someone was using it, so I just did it on the treadmill.

Facing backwards meant that I spent those ten minutes looking at myself in a great big mirror (wall size). I got a good look at my thighs in motion.

YUCK!

We are not amused. When did they get that way? How come I never noticed just how big and soft looking they are??? and WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME???? (oh, yeah, my kids are blissfully too young to know the difference and my husband is not an idiot.) I do NOT want to think about what they looked like six weeks ago before I started this program.

I'm now off to learn all I can about the exercises that will whip these flabby things into shape QUICKLY. I'll take pictures of them when they're lovely again.

I'm right there with you. When I rejoined the gym after not having gone since my early 20s I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that my reflection had changed to show a 30-something slightly overweight, very undertoned woman instead of the svelte 20 yo I had been. Ew. Damn mirror.

My mother once told me women in our family didn't get cellulite and I believed her until someone (a skinny 20 yo, no less) pointed mine out to me.